Developing new life-saving drugs and improving the efficacy and quality of existing therapeutic biologics drive the demand for innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry. To address this need, AB Sciex LLC, a global leader in analytical technologies, today introduced a breakthrough technology solution called CESI-MS. With this new solution, biopharmaceutical scientists will be able to more accurately predict efficacy, reduce the time to market for new therapeutics and proactively detect potential issues before they lead to costly product recalls.

CESI marks a novel combination of capillary electrophoresis (CE) and electrospray ionization (ESI) technologies to create an integrated workflow solution unlike anything else on the market. The CESI-MS workflow includes the industry's first commercially available ultra low-flow separation and ESI module for biologics, along with a high-performance, high-resolution, accurate mass instrument that is ideal for biopharmaceutical development, which is the fastest-growing segment of the drug discovery and development sector. The CESI-MS solution is expected to help support the industry's next wave of blockbuster products to enhance medical care.

The new CESI 8000 System for Biologics Characterization is an innovative, high-performance separation-electrospray ionization system for mass spectrometry (MS). This new front-end CESI technology from the company's SCIEX Separations business can be integrated with the well-established AB Sciex TripleTOF® 5600+ mass spectrometry system into a seamless solution, for example, to give biopharmaceutical scientists the ability to advance therapeutics discovery, research and development through the life cycle of the product.

With a single approach that increases efficiency and productivity, the CESI 8000 system provides orthogonal and/or superior results compared to dual-method liquid chromatography / mass spectrometry-based approaches. From a single digest and run, users of CESI-MS gain the following: (a) Identity and Purity information with 100 percent coverage in a peptide map; (b) Heterogeneity information with ultrasensitive glycopeptide quantitation; and (c) Stability information identifying, deamidation, cyclization and oxidation -- all highly important to biopharmaceutical scientists.

"AB SCIEX is partnering with biopharmaceutical companies around the world to advance biologics," said Jeff Chapman, Director of the CE Business within SCIEX Separations, a part of AB Sciex. "With CESI-MS, we are establishing a new benchmark of improved system performance for routine biologics analysis in a way that allows CESI to be easily integrated into existing workflows in biopharmaceutical laboratories. This is innovation delivered to help save more lives and address the unmet needs of our customers in biopharma."

The CESI 8000 system is the first CE-related product launch from AB Sciex. Expanding its portfolio of separations solutions, AB Sciex obtained the CESI technology through combining the CE business of Beckman Coulter Life Sciences with Eksigent nano and microscale chromatography to form a newly expanded separations business known as SCIEX Separations.

The new CESI-MS solution is part of AB Sciex's BiologicsFocus Initiative, which is a long-term strategy for AB Sciex to meet the evolving needs of biopharmaceutical scientists by providing innovative technologies and workflow solutions for therapeutic biologics.

"The new CESI system complements our AB Sciex 'quantitation by design' approach, which puts the power of highly accurate quantitative analysis of large molecules into the hands of biopharma scientists," said Joe Fox, Senior Director of the Pharmaceutical Business at AB Sciex. "As we work with biopharma companies on addressing new challenges, we see a rising demand for mass spectrometry in biologics that we are uniquely positioned to address. Our history and experience in this area, which now dates back more than a decade, combined with the exciting addition of the CESI product to the portfolio, will allow us to further our support of these key customers."

CE technology is already well integrated into the workflows of biopharmaceutical companies for the characterization and quality control of therapeutic antibodies, providing fast and efficient separations of intact biologics, automating SDS-Gel, isoelectric focusing and glycan analysis.

The CESI 8000, which is manufactured by Beckman Coulter, is an expansion to the CE portfolio within the newly expanded SCIEX Separations. This portfolio also includes the PA 800 plusTM pharmaceutical analysis system, the GeXPTM genetic analyzer and the P/ACETM MDQ capillary electrophoresis system.

The technical benefit of the CESI innovation delivered to biopharmaceutical laboratories is an improvement in biophysicochemical characterization to guide the development of biologics-based therapeutics. Specifically, CESI-MS serves to improve ionization efficiency and reduce ion suppression. AB Sciex is delivering this advancement as a robust solution - without requiring specialized expertise in CE or MS.

Switching between LC-MS and CESI-MS has also been made simple, which will help facilitate adoption of CESI-MS technology. The data that is generated on the CESI-based workflow is complementary to data from LC-MS/MS solutions.

For more information about the CESI 8000 system, go to www.sciex.com/cesi.

About AB Sciex

AB Sciex helps to improve the world we live in by enabling scientists and laboratory analysts to push the limits in their field and address the complex analytical challenges they face. The company's global leadership and world-class service and support in the mass spectrometry industry have made it a trusted partner to thousands of the scientists and lab analysts worldwide who are focused on basic research, drug discovery and development, food and environmental testing, forensics and clinical research. With more than 40 years of proven innovation, AB Sciex excels by listening to and understanding the ever-evolving needs of its customers to develop reliable, sensitive and intuitive solutions that continue to redefine what is achievable in routine and complex analysis. For more information about the company, go to www.absciex.com. Follow AB Sciex on Twitter @ABSCIEX, Facebook and LinkedIn.

SCIEX is part of AB SCIEX. The trademarks mentioned herein are the property of AB Sciex Pte. Ltd. or their respective owners. AB SCIEXTM is being used under license. Beckman Coulter® is being used under license.